This past weekend we wrapped up the last of the family Christmases. I was generously given some Best Buy gift cards from my Grandma and Aunt & Uncle. Thank you!

In the past this would have been a bit challenging, since the closest Best Buy is 2 hours away. But thanks to their website and free shipping I scored these awesome deals!

These are two amazing games that I’d had to pass on when they came out but now are on the “Nintendo Selects” line which is Nintendo’s “Greatest Hits” pretty much. Each of these games was only $20! Brand new! I love it! And there’s a ton of content. Hell, at the rate I’m going it will only take about a year for me to get through these. Actually, that’s a pretty good entertainment value if these last that long.

I’ve made some progress on the retro room. Got the NES hooked up in there finally. Gave the console a thorough cleaning which it probably hasn’t ever got more than a dusting in the 25 years it has existed. So I played a bit of Dr. Mario last night before I headed to bed. Also downloaded Balloon Fight on the Wii U Virtual Console for 30 cents. Andrea and I had a blast playing that for probably an hour! Unfortunately outside of that I haven’t had much time to play games. Hopefully with these two epic additions, that changes soon.

This Tuesday Top Ten will be a bit different. Because each of these ten games are all number one.

It’s hard to believe, but Nintendo has released more than 10 different gaming platforms over the years. Kinda makes me realize how old I’m getting. Nevertheless, here’s my favorite game on each of ten Nintendo Consoles.

EDIT: Okay, I had originally intended to combine the Gameboy/Gameboy Color games as one console… but then as I was writing this, I apparently forgot to do that. Rather than take a great game off the list… I’m just leaving it a Top 11 list. Enjoy!

1. NES – Super Mario Bros. 3: It’s rare these days that a game feels fresh, new and exciting. Especially when it comes to a sequel. But that is precisely how Super Mario Bros. 3 felt when it came out. Graphically, it has pushed the NES where it had never been before. New ideas like the World Map and item stash are still in use today over 20 years later. I may be wrong, but I believe that Super Mario Bros. 3 was the first game I ever bought and paid for with my own money. What a great investment.

1. Gameboy – The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: This is pretty close to being the best Gameboy game AND Gameboy Color game. Link’s Awakening set the tone for numerous Gameboy Zelda games to follow. The story was quite weird… but when it comes to playing Zelda anywhere, any time. This game is possibly the best. Carrying around a game of this magnitude anywhere you go back in the day was pretty darn impressive, when most handheld games were 5 card draw poker games and bad segmented LCD games.

1. Super Nintendo – Donkey Kong Country: This list could easily turn into the Mario & Zelda list. But my SNES exposure is severely limited compared to the other consoles. I never had one growing up so I was limited to playing what my friends had at their house. There may be better SNES games but I have probably spent the most time playing this one. It was such a fantastic platformer. The graphics were truly impressive, and it was more than just your standard run and jump game. The levels had a definite rhythm to them. You bounce a long and hit combo’s of enemies or tires to just kind of bound though a level, just like a monkey hopping from tree to tree. I recently acquired this game and have been loving it all over again!

1. Gameboy Color – The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons: Okay, I have to do it. The second Zelda game makes its apperance. This is literally one of my favorite Zelda games. The seasons mechanic offered a fun and sometime confounding twist to the world. Certian seasons allowed you to reach different areas. For instance you could walk across a frozen lake in winter, or climb up a vine covered cliff in summer. The catch was you could only change the seasons while standing atop a stump. So solving the season puzzles could often be a challenge. There was also a companion game to this one called Oracle of Ages. A game I never played but hope to snatch up some day. Maybe it’s even better than this one?

1. Nintendo 64 – Mario Kart 64: When this game came out, something about it immediately resonated with me. Mario Kart 64 was my first experience in the Mario Kart series and since then it’s undoubtedly taken up more hours of my life than any other single game. I still like sitting down and cranking out some Time Trials and seeing if I can even get close to my old times. But what I miss about Mario Kart 64 is the awesome battles we used to have with my friends. So much fun nailing somebody with a green shell on Block Fort. Ahh, the memories.

1. Gameboy Advance – Mario Kart Super Circuit: Oh hey. What do you know, two Mario Kart games back to back. That’s nice… But it’s true! Mario Kart Super Circuit on the GBA was a fantastic game that often gets overlooked. The GBA was finally cranking out portable games that you didn’t have to sacrifice much to get the whole game experience. Super Circuit was anything but a stripped down version of Super Mario Kart on the SNES. It had more tracks, more items, better visuals, and better sound. In all honestly, I bought a GBA just to play this one game.

1. Gamecube – Eternal Darkness: I don’t like scary movies, and I don’t even care much for Survival Horror games either. But Eternal Darkness is something a little different. Yes, the plot is grim and morbid, the scenes are often gruesome, but at its heart, there is a compelling story that keeps you wondering what’s next, and some absolutely fantastic gameplay. Best played in a dark room with surround sound cranked to the max.

1. DS – Animal Crossing: Wild World: Animal Crossing on Gamecube was a fantastic game, but it had two obvious shortcomings. It was cumbersome to travel to other people’s towns, and you couldn’t take it with you! Animal Crossing is the perfect game to have on the go, because you really should play it every day, and that can be hard to do! But if you have it on you, it’s easy to pop it out for 10 minutes, do your dailies, and get back to the real world! If you had to pick one version of the game to play, I would recommend this one!

1. Wii – The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: For me, this one isn’t even close. There were some great games on Wii, but there’s a wide margin between Skyward Sword and everything before it. It’s one of the most artistically beautiful games in the series striking a style balance somewhere between Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. But the most fun part about this game is… playing it. I never did completely fall in love with motion control, but Skward Sword changed that. If every motion control game was this fun to play and this natural, well, I wouldn’t have much of a bank account left. Take my money!

1. 3DS – Super Mario 3D Land: You don’t know how close I was to putting Mario Kart 7 here. I mean, it’s still on my notes right now, but I audibled at the last moment. I just got to thinking, which game is more 3DS-ey? Mario Kart 7 is a fantastic game, and I mean to imply no shortcomings. But Super Mario 3D Land is the defacto 3DS game. It just is. It’s probably the single best use of 3D on the system. It’s got it’s own unique quirkiness and level design that kind of set it apart from your traditional Mario release. Super tight controls, and tons of throwbacks to games gone by. It’s the game the 3DS should have launched with.

1. Wii U – Nintendoland: It’s “just” a mini-game collection. It’s no Wii Sports. It’s not a “complete” game. All things I heard, and for a large part bought into before the Wii U came out. I wasn’t looking forward to Nintendoland all that much myself. But after playing it, and most importantly, playing it with a group, it’s the most pure flippin fun I’ve had playing video games since the N64. And for me, that’s saying something! There’s plenty of stuff to do solo in the game, but playing with friends is where Nintendoland, and truthfully, the Wii U itself shine brightest.

Just saw this on eBay today. At first glance that looks like a pretty impressive price. Definitely more valuable than the average Super Nintendo game, and far more valuable than anything in my collection. Even still, if you look at that game solely as an investment, it still wasn’t worth it.

Warning, old geezer talk to follow:

When that game came out in 1992 it sold for $59.99. And while granted the game is worth more today than it was back then, your money still would have been better placed into the stock market. Over the last 20 years that average rate of return that the stock market has provided is 9.4%. So if you would have invested that $59.99 into an average performing mutual fund on the day this game came out and left it alone. Today that investment would be worth $390.28. Almost $300 more than what this game sold for.

So if you’re holding on to all those old games thinking they’ll be worth something someday… you’re doing it wrong.

But if you love PLAYING these old games… then keep ’em. Because there’s nothing like blowing into an old cartridge, clicking on a power switch and saving a princess. After all, if you never sell it, who cares what it’s worth!

I’m really looking forward to the weekend. It’s the first weekend since probably November that I will have nothing to do. We aren’t going anywhere, and I don’t have to work (crosses fingers). So I’ve got big plans. Okay, maybe not BIG plans.

Need to do a few odd things around the house. We want to seal up the windows in the guest bedroom to keep bugs from crawling in this spring like they did last year. Probably should go a head and bug spray the house while I’m thinking about bugs. Honestly haven’t seen too many creepy crawlies since we moved in. But don’t want to give them any ideas.

One thing I’m really hoping to do is a Vanquish campaign in Guild Wars of Kryta, Northern Shiverpeaks and Old Ascalon. That will take a while, and there will be lots of AFK time as I’ll be bouncing back and forth between the game and hanging out with Luke. Andrea might even join in. It’s sure to net a lot of cash and hopefully some good items too. But that’s something that might take the whole weekend on and off. Plus I still want to get in some time with Zelda and Mario 3D Land.

I’m also working on another project on the side that I’m not quite ready to disclose yet. I like the way its starting, but I don’t know if I’ll have the follow through to complete it for one, and two how it will turn out when it’s done. So if you never hear about it again, know that it must not have turned out well! Haha.

I hope your weekend is fantastic. I’m hoping to Livestream a lot of the Guild Wars vanquishing this weekend, so check the Livestream tab from time to time and see what’s up.

It’s weird. This past week hasn’t been too crazy, but sitting here this morning relaxing, it sure feels like it has. Honestly the weekend is going to be more crazy than my week, but I think I’m going to combat that by just going with the flow.

We are getting Luke to the photography studio (AKA JC Penny) to get some professional pictures taken. One of these days I’m going to save up and get me a nice DSLR camera and just take my own pictures. A gal I work with got one last year for Christmas, and it’s amazing the quality those things can produce in conditions that the little point and shoot can’t handle. But alas, it’s lower on the list of priorities. Of course I’ll be sharing the pictures of Luke once we get them. To get your complete fill of Lucas pictures, just follow Andrea on Facebook!

I wish I had time to play some Skyward Sword this weekend. That’s not going to be in the cards, but I will be keeping my 3DS handy and I hope to knock out Super Mario 3D land. I’m having to go back to some of the early levels and get star coins that I missed so I can progress into some of the later levels. Apparently there’s a toll on Princess saving plumbers in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 came out a week or two ago and that will probably be the next game I get after I beat Zelda and Mario. I’m not in a huge hurry because I still have a decent backlog of games to work on, plus all the old games that I always keep going back to. It’s not like I really need another new game right now. I have found that I really can only handle keeping up with one system it seems. I remember back in the college days when I had the Gamecube, PS2 and the Xbox, there was just not enough time, let alone enough money, to keep up with all the great games that come out. You just have to let some of them go. Hopefully XIII-2 doesn’t become one of those games.